Resolving Behavioral Output via Chemogenetic Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs

C. Joseph Burnett, Michael J. Krashes
2016 Journal of Neuroscience  
Designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) have proven to be highly effective neuromodulatory tools for the investigation of neural circuits underlying behavioral outputs. They exhibit a number of advantages: they rely on cell-specific manipulations through canonical intracellular signaling pathways, they are easy and cost-effective to implement in a laboratory setting, and they are easily scalable for single-region or full-brain manipulations. On the other hand,
more » ... s rely on ligand-G-protein-coupled receptor interactions, leading to coarse temporal dynamics. In this review we will provide a brief overview of DREADDs, their implementation, and the advantages and disadvantages of their use in animal systems. We also will provide numerous examples of their use across a broad variety of biomedical research fields.
doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1333-16.2016 pmid:27605603 pmcid:PMC5013180 fatcat:vn5zwbbmenanbpyqv3es6ae73y